Media has to distance from Government in Singapore:Expert
BY: Y.Bala Murali Krishna
Panaji,Oct 27-2k6: The Singapore media,with more stringent libel aws, has to distance itself from the government so that the readers ecome main stakeholders in the multi-ethnic society to crve a roper roadmap for its bright future,says a media expert from the South East Asian country.
“Media has changed quite dramatically over the last 10 years and the process is still on.The government knows it has to deliver economic growth and is consciouis of the role of the media which has of late been attracting talented people,” Mr.P.N. Balji, former editor-in-chief and CEO of MediaCorp Press observed.
He was interacting with UNI after after delivering a talk on “Media & Democracy-The Cases of Malaysia and Singapore” as part of the public lecture series organised by the International Centre, Goa, Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Goa Union of Journalists here today.
Admitting that stringent media laws exist in Singapore and
Malaysia,particularly related to libel, Mr.Balji justified the
ongoing role of the media in supporting the government policies that had been hielding successful economic growth and prosperity to the small country.
“Why should the media assume the role of the opposition when the government is delivering goods,” he argued thus brushing aside the idealistic roles of the media as “constructive opposition and agenda setting” as had been done in highly democratic countries.
Talking about freedom of expression vis-a-vis the stringent libel and press laws,media control common in both the countries,the former CEO of one of Singapore’s leading commuter papers Today said even the top ministerial functionaries had to talk with utmost caution in even addressing public meetings lest they face music.
The end of the cold war had brought a revolution in the Internet world over and more so in the two countries with youth aspiring for electronic papers, thus bringing about a radical change in the editorials and content and formats of the newspapers in both the countries.
“Our newspapers are now engaged in narrowcasting exercise, catering particularly to specialised segments such as women,youth,blue collar workers and children unlike in the past with a business model for survival,” he said.
The Straits Time newspaper with a circulation of 400,000 copies and 1.3 million readership was now a changed lot and had become a more reader friendly by adopting different business models after the ingression of the internet in Singapore,he said.
Even the “free newspapers” like Today that emerged from the Internet impact started netting 5 million Singapore dollar profit these days even as most of the papers like the New Straits Times,Barita Haryan were run under the “sophisticated control” of government companies.
But the societies these days had been experiencing a different
situation with influx of foreigners in both the countries, particularly in pro-US Singapore and emergence of 3G
syndrome of “girls,gays and grays who find a sense of vacuum”.
In this scenario, most of the youth who left out of Singapore did not like to go back even as the economy had been growing with contribution from outside.
Girls donot like to marry and beget children while the gays with their own exclusive pubs are growing with the ainstream media not taking cognizance of them and the grays with a sense of vacuum not caring for Singapore.
These 3G’s have become a big pressure groups in Singapore causing concern for all even as the foreign comunities who constitute 3 million out of 7 million population hardly ix among themselves for various reasons, he bemoaned.
He also expressed concern that even the foreign talent (expatriates including Indians)does not like to “stay” in Singapore after serving there for long.
Another major concern was “threat of terrorism” in Singapore as it had become the biggest avowed “lackey” of the US government consistently with not hesitating to carve out a military base for the US,while the tiny nations had become global villages these days,he added.
“Though their economies had been growing in scale,can Singapore and Malaysia avoid thinking and questioning societies and decide the type of democracy in 10 years to come?” Mr.Balji asked.//EOM//
